Offering from Justin Cheah
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Justin Cheah works in the Kechara Soup Kitchen (KSK) dept and he works super hard for the homeless and even finding jobs for them. Justin is a no nonsense guy, doesn’t gossip, even tempered, polite to everyone, always helpful, super fast moving, has a heart of gold, stable person and has genuine compassion for the less fortunate and everyone. He works not motivated by salary or money, but purely to benefit others….wow!!I am told he is a pleasure to work with. Fantastic human being. Fantastic example of Buddhist compassion.
Look at the sweet card and gifts from the heart he sent me. I humbly accept and thank Justin.
Justin keep bringing KSK to higher and higher levels with your great team that you work with.
Tsem Rinpoche
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Yes, everyone loves Justin Cheah just as much as Rinpoche appreciates him. He is also the physical labour force behind Kechara Soup Kitchen or KSK. When KSK first started they did not have a place to operate from. A group of volunteers headed by Justin Cheah will operate from the TKL admnistration office. Every Saturday nite and Sunday evening, packing will be done in KH2 before going out for distribution of the food by the volunteers. Justin also organises Orientation classes for new volunteers before they are allowed to go for the rounds of distribution food to the homeless on the streets. With his pleasant and patient attitude he is able to draw a lot of volunteers to help him to do his KSK charitable work.
Ever since Justin was roped in to assist and worked in KSK, he has been making waves in helping the department grows leaps and bounds. As far as I know even when working with him or on distributing rounds with him, he has always shown his loving care and tenderness to the homeless whether sick, old or young. He would speak and advise them whenever there’s opportunity. Even if he could not find them, he would enquire their whereabouts from their counterparts on the street and searched form them whenever possible. He has shown tenacity to go all out to make sure the homeless are well taken care of.
Justin Cheah is just an amazing guy because he was the first guy to take Kechara Soup Kitchen to the amazing level that it is right now. I am not exceptionally close with him but for the few times we talked, he is sincere, earnest and is really a very simple guy. He is quick and does care very much for the poor lost souls he helps everyday at his work. I can just feel it from the way he talks to them and to the many volunteers that comes to KSK.
What I noticed is a winning synergy between Ruby Khong as the head, Justin, Siong Woan, Sharon and the many others in Kechara Soup Kitchen. Their success if very apparent with the purchase of the new Soup Kitchen building downtown that is about to opened soon and the abundant media coverage of Ruby and her KSK message. What I find inspirational is that it is working with minimal fuss as everybody works well with each other and there is results.
Looks like Justin’s hard work and everyone in his department is not only benefitting the homeless but also the Kechara organisation as a whole. Good work Justin!
Justin is an ardent Liverpool, and so am I. Though Liverpool fared terribly last season I think he is still loyal to the club. Thats the kind of person he is. I have been to KSK many times and brought new people out of the blue as sometimes due to bad planning or last minute people confirm they are coming I had to surprise Justin Cheah with new people during the KSK sessions. Well mostly he is pretty cool about it though somewhat flustered at times. I feel the one quality that Justin has that makes him so suitable to do KSK is that he really likes working with people and interacting with them.
I first met Justin about a year before he joined Kechara Soup Kitchen full-time. We met at Kechara House and he was fairly new to Tibetan Buddhism then. But he already had incredible faith in Rinpoche right from the very start.
I was serving in the Ladrang gift section at that time, and Rinpoche wanted to give him a special Buddha statue .I remember Rinpoche saying that Justin had “very soft and gentle eyes” and that stayed in my mind as I went to deliver the statue to Justin.
Yes, Justin does have eyes like that, and it is a reflection of his character and care. His care for the homeless is a driving factor in bringing people to KSK, and more importantly, making them return over and over again. During a recent KSK round, someone told me “I really hope to have a chance someday to follow Justin in his van one day to see how he helps to rescue the homeless.”
Justin is a shining example of genuine care that is able to inspire others to do the same. It goes to show that ONE SINCERE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
It was on a Thursday night in Dec 2008 that I first met Justin for KSK Orientation. He patiently took me thru all details of KSK with passion radiating from all over him like halo! The following Sunday, I joined KSK food distribution round for the first time and the rest, as they said, is history.
As I got to know Justin over time, I found him very sincere, hardworking and most of all, he has the ability to care for EVERYONE that he comes across. He sit in the open boots of KSK van and talk to homeless people attentively and referring to them by name! He even remember where each of them sleep at night. He can also dress up a bit and make wonderful presentation to government officials representing Kechara Soup Kitchen!
He carries 2 mobile phones, both are constantly ringing one after another; he gets calls from homeless, sponsors, volunteers and practically everyone! But I have NEVER seen him lost his cool, always very patient and well mannered.
Last year, I was going thru a rough patch, having a lot of time on my hands, I hanged around Kechara House (www.kechara.com) quite a bit and one day, I met Justin. I shared with him my situation and immediately he introduced SETRAP to me, took me to the chapel, explained who SETRAP is, what he does, how to prostrate, how to recite mantra etc etc etc. One of the things he taugh me was: I can pray to SETRAP for help and SETRAP WILL help if my motivation is right.
I figured I had nothing to lose, so I made a silent prayer to SETRAP. My prayer was answered within a month!!
People tend to turn to Justin for help knowing he WILL help and he just CAN’T and WON’T say NO.. That’s our Justin 🙂
Someone said to me that everyone should have 5 people whom we could totally rely on, in case of emergency, they would come running to help even if it is in the middle of the night.. As I try to takestock of my circle of friends, Justin came up on top of my ‘5 people’ list. And I have no doubt he will stay here for a long long time.
Thank you Justin for being my friend, it’s my honour to get to know you and work with you.